Highlights from the Third Annual Social Sector Franchise Roundtable

The Third Annual Social Sector Franchise Innovations Roundtable (SSFIR), held at the UNH Durham campus on October 18-19 was a unique invitation-only conference convening a diverse cross-section of social sector franchise entrepreneurs, commercial franchise experts, impact investors and donors, thought leaders, and scholars.

The theme for this year’s Roundtable was, “Moving from Pilots to Proven Concept: Tools, Metrics, and Best Practices for Social Sector Franchising”. The event helped identify barriers to growth and defined actions that can build the Social Sector Franchising ecosystem across diverse contexts.

Sweater BIKKEMBERGS Sweater BIKKEMBERGS 2017 Agenda At A Glance:

Wednesday, October 18, 2017

Opening Keynote Address and Q & A

Keynote Speaker Greg Hills, Managing Director of FSG

Mr. Hills has over 20 years of experience advising organizations on strategy, program design, evaluation, and operational improvement, and co-leads FSG’s global corporate consulting practice advising multinational corporations on innovative shared value and CSR strategies. He has published numerous influential papers and speaks regularly on topics of shared value, CSR, collective impact, and philanthropic effectiveness. FSG is a mission-driven consulting firm for leaders in search of large-scale, lasting social change. http://www.fsg.org/

A Nebraska-based program called Global Partners in Hope (GPiH) is developing five regional health centers, delivering real, sustainable hope to the rural people of Togo. Last summer, thanks in large part to a grant from the UNH Emeriti Council, three UNH students had an opportunity to assist in this effort. Kiley McKenna (Nursing ’18), Elizabeth Lapsley (Nursing ’18), and Aboubacar Konate (Civil Engineering ’17) participated in a ten-day GPiH mission to conduct a needs assessment of the health of the rural community surrounding the village of Agbelouve. Read more here.

Building the Social Sector Franchise Ecosystem Part Two: Developing a Research Agenda and Community of Practice to Catalyze the Growth of the Social Sector Franchise Ecosystem

Evening Keynote and Dinner – Galen Welsch, Co-founder and CEO Jibu Galen co-founded Jibu in 2012 and under his leadership Jibu has quickly become a top-rated B-Corp social franchise bringing affordable drinking water access to thousands, and creating hundreds of jobs, mostly for youth, across East Africa. Galen’s achievements at Jibu have been recognized by BBC World, the Guardian, Fast Company, the Franchise Times, and by Forbes 30 under 30 and serves on the advisory board of the UNH Social Sector Franchise Initiative. http://jibuco.com/

Thursday, October 19, 2017

Introduction of the Social Sector Franchise Accelerator Process 2017-2018

All five new Social Sector Franchise Accelerator protégés made 10 minute introductions of their social franchises and Critical Issues followed by 5 minutes of clarifying questions from participants.

Here is a brief profile of our 2017-2018 SSFA Protégés

Apps and Girls: A small social enterprise dedicated to providing coding training, entrepreneurship coaching, and mentorship to school-age girls in Tanzania

WSV: Currently running three social enterprises that address issues for those living on less than $3/day: Petal, educating communities and providing women with sanitary napkins; Roots, building hygienic toilet facilities that turn waste into fertilizer; and Right Light, which rents solar lamps to communities without adequate infrastructure.

Pollinate Energy A social business that brings highly affordable, quality products such as cook stoves, solar lamps, fans, and water filters to the urban slums of India through a micro-franchise model.

Accelerator Solutions Prototyping with Working Lunch* (buffet available from 12:00pm – 12:45pm) Participants broke into five groups, one for each SSFA protégé, to work through an Accelerator Solutions Prototyping Process that had as its end result an action plan for moving the social franchise forward to the next stage of development. The action plan identifies possible strategies for solving key constraints, attracting financing, resolving management dilemmas, etc. The action plan will guide the mentoring relationship between the IFA mentor and the SSF franchiser.

Accelerator Solutions Prototyping Teams Report Back Each team was given have 10 minutes to report back on the Accelerator Solutions Prototyping process and the Actions Plan created. To read the individual Actions Plans and read the blog posts of the mentor/protégé calls click here